Hybrid Collision Avoidance for ASVs Compliant With COLREGs Rules 8 and 13–17

This paper presents a three-layered hybrid collision avoidance (COLAV) system for autonomous surface vehicles, compliant with rules 8 and 13–17 of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). The COLAV system consists of a high-level planner producing an energy-optimized trajectory, a model-predictive-control-based mid-level COLAV algorithm considering moving obstacles and the COLREGs, and the branching-course model predictive control algorithm for short-term COLAV handling emergency situations in accordance with the COLREGs. Previously developed algorithms by the authors are used for the high-level planner and short-term COLAV, while we in this paper further develop the mid-level algorithm to make it comply with COLREGs rules 13–17. This includes developing a state machine for classifying obstacle vessels using a combination of the geometrical situation, the distance and time to the closest point of approach (CPA) and a new CPA-like measure. The performance of the hybrid COLAV system is tested through numerical simulations for three scenarios representing a range of different challenges, including multi-obstacle situations with multiple simultaneously active COLREGs rules, and also obstacles ignoring the COLREGs. The COLAV system avoids collision in all the scenarios, and follows the energy-optimized trajectory when the obstacles do not interfere with it.

[1]  Giuseppe Casalino,et al.  A three-layered architecture for real time path planning and obstacle avoidance for surveillance USVs operating in harbour fields , 2009, OCEANS 2009-EUROPE.

[2]  C. Chauvin.  Human Factors and Maritime Safety , 2011, Journal of Navigation.

[3]  Anastasios M. Lekkas,et al.  Energy-Optimized Path Planning for Autonomous Ferries , 2018 .

[4]  Moritz Diehl,et al.  CasADi: a software framework for nonlinear optimization and optimal control , 2018, Mathematical Programming Computation.

[5]  John J. Leonard,et al.  A method for protocol‐based collision avoidance between autonomous marine surface craft , 2006, J. Field Robotics.

[6]  Øivind Aleksander G. Loe.  Collision Avoidance for Unmanned Surface Vehicles , 2008 .

[7]  Atsushi Sakai,et al.  Autonomous Parking Using Optimization-Based Collision Avoidance , 2018, 2018 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC).

[8]  Michael T. Wolf,et al.  Safe Maritime Autonomous Navigation With COLREGS, Using Velocity Obstacles , 2014, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering.

[9]  Tor Arne Johansen,et al.  MPC-based Collision Avoidance Strategy for Existing Marine Vessel Guidance Systems , 2018, 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[10]  Bj⊘rn-Olav H. Eriksen,et al.  Radar-based maritime collision avoidance using dynamic window , 2018, 2018 IEEE Aerospace Conference.

[11]  J. F. Kemp.  A Guide to the Collision Avoidance Rules. A. N. Cockcroft and J. N. F. Lameijer, 223 pp., 8·7 × 5·5 cm, Stanford Maritime Ltd., London, 1976, £3·50. , 1977 .

[12]  Rafal Szlapczynski,et al.  Review of ship safety domains: Models and applications , 2017 .

[13]  Lorenz T. Biegler,et al.  On the implementation of an interior-point filter line-search algorithm for large-scale nonlinear programming , 2006, Math. Program..

[14]  Morten Breivik,et al.  Modeling, Identification and Control of High-Speed ASVs: Theory and Experiments , 2017 .

[15]  Satyandra K. Gupta,et al.  Dynamics-aware target following for an autonomous surface vehicle operating under COLREGs in civilian traffic , 2013, 2013 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[16]  Oskar Levander,et al.  Autonomous ships on the high seas , 2017, IEEE Spectrum.

[17]  Morten Breivik,et al.  The branching‐course model predictive control algorithm for maritime collision avoidance , 2019, J. Field Robotics.

[18]  Morten Breivik,et al.  Short-term ASV Collision Avoidance with Static and Moving Obstacles , 2019, Modeling, Identification and Control: A Norwegian Research Bulletin.

[19]  Mamun Abu-Tair,et al.  An automatic COLREGs-compliant obstacle avoidance system for an unmanned surface vehicle , 2014 .

[20]  Tor Arne Johansen,et al.  Proactive Collision Avoidance for ASVs using A Dynamic Reciprocal Velocity Obstacles Method , 2018, 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).

[21]  Morten Breivik,et al.  A Model-Based Speed and Course Controller for High-Speed ASVs , 2018 .

[22]  Anastasios M. Lekkas,et al.  Energy-Optimized Hybrid Collision Avoidance for ASVs , 2019, 2019 18th European Control Conference (ECC).

[23]  Richard Bucknall,et al.  Collision risk assessment for ships , 2010 .

[24]  Morten Breivik,et al.  MPC-Based mid-level collision avoidance for asvs using nonlinear programming , 2017, 2017 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA).

[25]  Anastasios M. Lekkas,et al.  Warm-Started Optimized Trajectory Planning for ASVs , 2019, IFAC-PapersOnLine.

[26]  David Huawei Wu.  Proactive maritime collision avoidance based on historical AIS data , 2019 .

[27]  A. Harati-Mokhtari,et al.  Automatic Identification System (AIS): Data Reliability and Human Error Implications , 2007, Journal of Navigation.

[28]  Peter Deuflhard,et al.  Newton Methods for Nonlinear Problems , 2004 .

[29]  WächterAndreas,et al.  On the implementation of an interior-point filter line-search algorithm for large-scale nonlinear programming , 2006 .